Zork
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 text adventure games
A landmark text adventure still fun to play and easy to run today. Critics find its puzzles obscure and its design rigid.
A landmark text adventure still fun to play and easy to run today. Critics find its puzzles obscure and its design rigid.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 20
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 20 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Historically important, still meaningful
“It's impressive it was ever commercialized, much less successful enough that we are still talking about it today.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “The Visible Zorker: Zork 1” “It's hard to convey how much Zork (and the rest of the Infocom portfolio) means to me.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft makes Zork open-source” “Zork is still a work of art to me”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “The Visible Zorker: Zork 3” Easy to run anywhere
“I love the idea that these can live forever in apt/rpm repositories.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft makes Zork open-source” “I like playing Zork via docker”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft makes Zork open-source” Impressive remakes and scale
“I was impressed by this 3D version of Zork.”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Recreating Minecraft Is Not a Benchmark” “that is actually REALLY cool, wow”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Recreating Minecraft Is Not a Benchmark” “The scale of this is impressive.”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Recreating Minecraft Is Not a Benchmark”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Obscure puzzles requiring repeated deaths
“Zork at times makes precious little sense: you are supposed to die over and over before you figure stuff out.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Why are large language models so terrible at video games?” “I remember trying them and finding them frustrating for the same reason”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I Wrapped the Zorks with an LLM” Rigid and dated design
“They were way too rigid then, and still too rigid now”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I Wrapped the Zorks with an LLM” “old, crusty, and obsolete”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft makes Zork open-source”
Other text adventure games people recommend
The two most recommended other text adventure games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZorkThis page | 20 | 8 | 71% | 8 | — | Approved |
| AI Dungeon | 9 | 3 | 75% | 4 | — | — |
| Colossal Cave Adventure | 5 | 1 | 83% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
21 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“So I can lay out what I want the class shape to be and don't have to implement all the annoying little parts.”
“that is actually REALLY cool, wow”
“The scale of this is impressive.”
“I was impressed by this 3D version of Zork.”
“Zork at times makes precious little sense: you are supposed to die over and over before you figure stuff out.”
“Zork gets too much praise in my opinion compared to its ancestor which really defined the genre.”
“Zork is still a work of art to me”
“It's impressive it was ever commercialized, much less successful enough that we are still talking about it today.”
“It seems to often make it hard to get back where you were”
“There's the Infocom ZMachine with Zork I-III, Tristam Island, Calypso”
“They were way too rigid then, and still too rigid now”
“I remember trying them and finding them frustrating for the same reason”
“Zork was arguably better, but it was in the same vein, and later.”
“learn what? how to print text to stdout? how to do if else statements or math.random?”
“Still fun to play, someday I hope to find time to solve them.”
“It's hard to convey how much Zork (and the rest of the Infocom portfolio) means to me.”
“I like playing Zork via docker”
“Love it. I use a grue reference on 404s to my blog.”
“I love the idea that these can live forever in apt/rpm repositories.”
“old, crusty, and obsolete”
“Amazing to see classic game code being made accessible for learning”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.